Hunter
For related articles, see Category:Hunters. The Hunter class performs pulling, threat redirection, crowd control, and primarily ranged damage. Hunters have pets that add to their DPS and help manage aggro. They can also track, tame and train animals and beasts found in the wild. Hunters consider their weapons and pets to be their only true friends. Although in some other games such as Everquest, the Hunter is much more a ranged/melee hybrid, this is generally not the case in World of Warcraft. The Survival tree offers some enhancement to melee ability, but the class's damage mitigation in particular is poor compared to pure melee classes, and its melee abilities, such as they are, are generally considered vestigial. Overview *Hunters tame wild beasts of Azeroth and Outland, training them to fight at their side. Hunters, along with Warlocks (Summonable Demonic Minions), Mages (Summon Water Elemental talent), Druids (Force of Nature Balance talent), Shamans (elemental summoning totems) and Priests (Shadowfiend spell) make up the six classes that can have combat pets. Hunters, however, are the only ones that can name and feed their pets; Warlock pets are automatically given names when they are initially summoned and their damage is unaffected by "happiness". *Hunters excel in outdoor survival skills, such as tracking and laying traps. *Hunters wear leather and cloth armor until level 40, at which they gain access to equipping mail armor. Most Hunters start with an axe or dagger and a gun, crossbow, or bow. With training, they can learn all other weapon skills except wands, maces, and two-handed maces. They are unable to use shields or plate armor. *Hunters have many magical abilities that require mana, such as pet healing and special shots, but their mana pools are not as large as those of dedicated spellcasters. *Hunters can take on various Animal Aspects that grant special abilities, such as increased dodge, improved run speed, or even additional nature resistance. Background The hunter is a stalker in the wilds, living on his knowledge of survival and skill with a bow or rifle. He is deeply in tune with nature, and some of its mightiest beasts are his allies. Of Azeroth's many creatures, few can resist the hunter's call, and fewer can survive his fury. Hunters are as varied as the world's many climates, but they are universally renowned for their amazing abilities to find their prey and bring it down. They come from any race (players are restricted to seven races, see below), though certain races naturally excel at the hunter's profession. Most hunters seek to aid the balance of nature along with their druidic allies. Elven rangers are not alone in their mastery of the wilderness. While an elven ranger prefers the bow, the hunter would rather get up close. A hunter is skilled in stealth, slipping through the woods like a ghost. Orcs of the Horde first learned the ways of the hunter from forest trolls on Lordaeron and tauren have been masters of the hunt since the dawn of the world. Like the shamans of the Horde, hunters call upon the spirits of the land, wind, and fire to aid them in their hunts and tasks. Their spells focus on the elements and the land. thumb|right||A dwarven hunter takes aim The hunter is one of the oldest classes in history. They represent a deep connection between man and beast, and the hunters of Warcraft are not merely individuals who track animals and slay them for food, but custodians of balance. They understand the natural circle of life and death, and the part they must play in maintaining it not simply as researchers, but as active participants. The Hunt is venerated, and the prey they choose to stalk is given as much respect as the predators hunters choose to learn from and embody. All hunters create lifelong friendships with animal companions, who are also often their best and only friends, if the stereotype of the reclusive huntsman is to be believed. Hunters come in all shapes, forms, sizes and specialties, but in the World of Warcraft, all hunters specialize to be marksmen. Hunters are a curious mix of mysticism and rough wilderness know-how. They can learn to mystically align themselves with the aspects of various animals to assist them: the spryness of a Monkey, the sharp eyes of a Hawk, the swiftness of a Cheetah and gift themselves with a higher resistance against the dangers of the most important thing of all in the rites of a hunter -- the very Wilds he and his prey live in. Hunters also derive a system of hand-to-hand combat inspired by the attacks and counterattacks of various animals, and use magically empowered traps to maim and snare their prey. They have various shots imbued with magic or explosives to snare, poison, handicap and disorient their targets. They can even hold their breath and slow their heartbeat to a highly infrequent, inconsequential tap to give their pursuers the impression that they are dead. The hunter is the choice of life for those who reject societies that oppress our roles in the natural role as prey and hunter, and also reject the druidic stance that we should be healers and observers rather than active participants in the Great Hunt. Theirs is a life of reverence for nature as well as the willingness to use man-made tools. We are tool-using creatures after all, and it is only natural to use that advantage afforded by nature to be better hunters, though there are also many hunters who prefer a more direct approach to tracking and hunting. Famous hunters include all High Elven Rangers like Alleria Windrunner and her two sisters Vereesa and Sylvanas, but also the Night Elven such as Shandris Feathermoon. Rexxar the Mok'Nathal Beastmaster is also a legendary hunter. Some mythical examples are the unnamed tauren who cornered Malorne the White Stag. It should be noted that the term hunter has two definitions, it can refer to the combat class or the specific profession, hobby, survival skill of those that go hunting. The two definitions do not mean the same thing. Not all that hunt, have the hunter class. The above lore only refers to the specific class. Races The Hunter class can be played by the following races: Alliance * Night elves * Dwarves * Draenei Horde * Orcs * Tauren * Trolls * Blood elves These are some relevant racial traits to hunters: * Draenei - Heroic Presence affects pets. Their Gift of the Naaru ability also gives hunters a heal over time. * Dwarf - Gun Specialization increases critically hit with guns by 1%. Also has Stoneform to counter various types of debuffs, such as Crippling Poison. * Night elf - Shadowmeld enables the Hunter to take advantage of unsuspecting enemies in PvP as well as mobs in PvE, and Quickness can stack upon Aspect of the Monkey to increase dodge further. * Orc - Command increases pet damage by 5%. Also has the powerful Blood Fury ability. * Troll - Bow Specialization increases chance to critically hit with bows by 1%. Also has Berserking. * Tauren - Endurance increases the total health of the Hunter by 5%. This stacks with the Endurance Training talent in the Beast Mastery talent tree and the Survivalist talent in the Survival talent tree. Other racial attributes can also be useful, but may not be specifically relevant to hunters as a class. As always, research into all the racial traits of each race will make a player's decision better informed. Talents and abilities Hunters have a vast range of talents and abilities. These can be roughly categorized into the following: Ranged fighting thumb|left|An orc hunter in Dragonstalker armor, wielding the [[High Warlord's Street Sweeper]]Ranged fighting requires a choice between a gun, bow, or a crossbow. When starting, this will depend on your race. Dwarves and Tauren are given guns, Draenei start with crossbows, and the other races get bows. Later on, you can train to use the ranged weapons that aren't inherent to your race. In general, crossbows are relatively slow, but hit harder and are favored for increasing burst damage, while guns are relatively fast and good for steady grinding at the cost of using more ammunition than other weapons. Bows have moderate attack speed and are favored for sustained DPS. Initially, weapon speed will be inconsequential since the only available abilities consist of Auto-Shot and various instant casts. Guns can be crafted by engineers, but there are no craftable bows or crossbows, so most ranged upgrades will come from mob drops and quest rewards. Guns use bullets while bows and crossbows use arrows. Different types of ammunition add different amounts of DPS; generally, the higher level you are, the higher DPS ammunition you can access. At level 70, several different qualities of ammo are available and you may often find yourself using different types of ammo for different situations. Standard white quality bullets and arrows of varying DPS are available at most innkeepers and almost all general goods vendors, as well as special city vendors. There is also special ammunition that can be crafted by engineers or bought as reputation rewards; these projectiles are typically expensive and not very economical for everyday use. The Halaa ammunition vendor sells 34 DPS arrows and shells; these are no longer unique to 200, but they are bind on pickup and can only be purchased if your faction (Alliance or Horde) controls Halaa. and are availible at revered from the Cenarion Expedition and Honor Hold/Thrallmar respectively. and can be made by engineers and are the best ammunition short of the and from the Violet Eye quartermaster at revered. and are the best ammunition currently in game, available at honored with The Scale of the Sands. For further information see the Hunter Tactics page. Stings Hunters have stings, which are specialized debuffs they can apply to targets to help them address specific situations. Only one sting per Hunter can be active on any one target. * Scorpid Sting - Reduces chance to hit with melee and ranged attacks by 5% for 20 seconds. * Serpent Sting - Causes Nature damage over 15 seconds. * Viper Sting - Drains mana over 8 seconds. * Wyvern Sting - Puts the target to sleep for 12 seconds. Any damage will cancel the effect. When the target wakes up, the Sting causes Nature damage over 12 seconds. (Requires the tier 7 Survival talent Wyvern Sting.) Shots Hunters also make heavy use of special shots to supplement their DPS and provide utility to their groups. The bulk of a hunter's damage and utility will come from the use of these shots. To maximize the DPS output, a hunter should choose a slowest crossbow,bow,gun and rotate between Arcane Shot, Auto Shot, Steady Shot (when the Steady Shot ability become available to you). That is if your crossbow is 3.2 second cast time, your Arcane Shot is at normal 6 second and your Steady Shot is at 1.6 second cool down, you should fire Arcane Shot -> Auto Shot -> Steady Shot -> Auto Shot -> Steady Shot -> Arcane Shot. Fire Arcane Shot when ever it is ready and allow a Auto Shot between Steady Shots. (Note: There is much "Theorycraft" dedicated to the idea of the "perfect" shot rotation: Many hunters disagree with this shot rotation, alternatives may be seen discussed at elitistjerks, and tkasomething.com) Melee fighting While Hunters are primarily a ranged class, they do possess some melee abilities. They are no where near as powerful as the abilities of a true melee class such as a Rogue or Warrior, but they are still useful in situations where the target is too close to be hit with ranged attacks. (Note: There used to be an 8-yard zone immediately beyond the Hunter's melee range where range weapons couldn't be used called the "Dead Zone". This zone was done away with in Patch 2.3, much to the dismay of PvP Clothies.) The general goal in using these moves is to continue inflicting damage while attempting to open distance, hence these abilities have limited uses, cooldowns, or are some kind of movement impairment effect. Combat pets Pets are the most important tools in the hands of a hunter. They serve as aggro-management, additional DPS, and tanking. While the manner in which a pet is customarily used differs fairly greatly, depending on the Hunter's spec, the pet is still essential to all specs. A well trained pet of the appropriate type can add upwards of 120 DPS to a Hunter's overall damage output; so while they are customarily thought of as tanks, their offensive potential should not be overlooked. Many beast-type mobs can be tamed, and each offer a set of unique active skills (there are special abilities just for wolves, just for cats, etc). In addition, certain pet types are tanking oriented (such as bears), and others are DPS oriented (such as cats and owls). Combined with the diversity of armor, stamina and resistance buffs, pets are allowed a great deal of customization. Many hunters have dedicated pets for specific instances, PvP, tanking, and so on. Hunters can tame pets at level 10 by completing a short series of quests. They are able to control the pet through various commands. Although hunters can only have one active pet at a time, the stable can house up to 2 additional pets. See more at Hunter's pets. Traps Hunters have five different types of traps available for use. Some traps are a type of Crowd Control; others are a source of damage. All traps have a 30 second cooldown and a 2 second arming time. Traps will exist for 1 minute, and only one trap can be active at a time. However, if a trap is set off, another trap can be used while the effect of the first is active. Traps are within the domain of the Survival sub-school, and although the basic traps are trainable by Hunters of any spec, the Survival tree contains numerous talents to enhance their use. Double trapping is made much easier with the Survival talent Readiness. Aspects Hunters have seven aspects at their disposal. Only one aspect may be active at a time. Aspects will only affect the Hunter, unless stated otherwise. The aspects are part of the Beast Mastery school, and while the base aspects are trainable by Hunters of any specialization, the Beast Mastery tree contains talents which enhance their use. Tracking Hunters can track eight different types of units. Only one tracking ability may be active at a time, which includes the tracking for mining veins and herbs. Hunter talents Talents are a way to specialize your character by enhancing your skills and/or learning new skills. Starting at level 10, you will receive a talent point every time you gain a level. There are three categories for Hunter Talents: *Beast Mastery *Marksmanship *Survival For further information see Hunter Talents, Hunter Talent Discussion. Talent calculators can be found at Official Blizzard Talent Calculator. and WoW Den's Talent Calculator Gear Armor Hunters can use Cloth Armor and Leather Armor initially. At level 40 they can train to use Mail Armor. See Hunter Sets for a list of hunter armor sets. Weapons Hunters are capable of learning how to use bows, guns, crossbows, thrown weapons, daggers, axes, fist weapons, swords, polearms, staves, two-handed axes, and two-handed swords. The only weapons they cannot use are wands and one-handed and two-handed maces. Upon reaching level 20, Hunters can learn the Dual Wield skill. This allows them to wield two one-handed weapons at the same time. See Hunter weapon for an explanation of the value of the various stat bonuses and a list of melee weapons suitable for hunters. Starting stats Attribute conversions Please note that although 14RAP gives a damage bonus equivalent to 1 DPS, the actual damage bonus per attack depends on weapon speed. This is before things like haste effects (quiver/ammo pouch, Rapid Fire, etc). In the case of Multi-Shot and Aimed Shot, the Attack Power contribution is normalized. Also note that although 14 Agility = 14 AP which causes a 1 DPS increase, agility will also provide extra critical strike bonus which must be considered. Roughly one can say that for DPS, [[Formulas:Item Values|'1 agility' ≈ 1 attack power ≈ 0.552 crit rating]]. The maximum hit rating needed for level 70 hunters attacking level 73 targets (i.e. boss mobs) is 142 (141.93), which equals +9% chance to hit. For each talent point spent in the Surefooted talent in the Survival tree, the amount of hit rating needed will decrease by 16. The maximum usable hit with 3/3 surefooted is 95 (94.69). The maximum usable hit rating for Draenei hunters is reduced by an additional 16 due to their racial ability Heroic Presence. Expertise, added in 2.3, has no effect on ranged weapons. Burning Crusade changes New pets and abilities The expansion offers several new pets and abilities. Information can be found at http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/. Traps Traps can now be set during combat. This opens a whole new role to hunters as crowd control, as hunters can now chain trap a mob without having to rely on Feign Death to exit combat. Notices Always keep an eye on your bullets or arrows; you don't want to run out of ammo in the middle of a fight. Never be afraid to bring extra ammunition if needed in your normal bag slots. While the Hunter is an easy class to play at a superficial level, it can be a highly challenging class to play well. People will consistently tell you that damage is the only reason for a Hunter's existence; in raids, and possibly in soloing that might be true, but in five man instances and battleground pvp in particular, it isn't. You can use traps as a form of crowd control, and you need to monitor your pet to ensure that it does not cause problems. In addition, in most MMORPGs, the Hunter or Ranger class variant is usually recognized as the ideal ranged puller in a group. World of Warcraft is somewhat unique in that within its' culture, ranged pulling is generally not considered a Hunter's responsibility, to the point where Hunters in groups will actually be expressly forbidden from doing so. This is true despite the fact that, as with other games, in WoW Blizzard has equipped the Hunter with numerous unique abilities (Disengage, Feign Death, Tracking) to assist them in the accomplishment of that task. In combat, hunters have the ability to quickly remove all threat they have generated on a target via Feign Death. In the majority of boss fights, you won't be out of combat for more or less than 1 to 3 seconds. Pets in instances should be controlled carefully and watched closely; one wrong click can very well get you and the party or even raid killed. You should set your pet on passive mode as well as disabling autocast for Growl and any other AoE abilities to be secure. The "OMG HUNTER LOOT" / "That's a Hunter weapon!" : jokes exists for a reason. Don't forget you share your gear class with many other classes. It's very unlikely you're the only person who needs any given drop. Do not be surprised if other classes also compete with you for ranged weapons, even though, technically speaking, they shouldn't. From a use point of view, a Warrior might vaguely be able to justify rolling on a high level ranged weapon. A Rogue can not, unless it increases his attack power in some way. End-game expectations With longer range, pets, and Feign Death abilities, Hunters are often counted on to be the primary puller in end-game raids such as Molten Core and Blackwing Lair, where you will be expected to know how and when to pull. These pulls require finesse, and are usually more than simply shooting something to gain aggro and bringing it back to the tank; many Hunters are expected to understand the mechanics of hate management and how to allow for the tank to garner more hate from a taunt. At level 70, a Hunter can learn Misdirection, an ability that 'plants' hate from their other abilities onto a target of their choice (likely to be the tank); a smart hunter should be able to make the most use of this. If you don't know how to pull, there are places where you can go to learn. The Scarlet Monastery Cathedral in particular is a fantastic place to learn about basic pulling and general tactics as a Hunter. Learning to solo it will help develop your skills in trapping, monitoring patrols, and determining the correct pull order in order to perform safe pulls with a group of mobs. A Hunter's pet will be expected to be trained in the appropriate resistances for any given encounter, such as Fire Resistance for Molten Core for example. In addition, a Beast Mastery-skilled Hunter will be expected to know how and when (and when not to) use their pet against every mob the raid will encounter. For this reason, expect to select and bring a pet that benefits the raid in some way (for example, a wolf-type pet for Furious Howl to increase party melee damage or ranged damage, a Wind Serpent that can attack from ranged distance beside the hunter, or even a pet designed for taking damage for off-tanking). A Hunter's primary responsibility in nearly all raid encounters is to provide a high amount of DPS over a sustained period of time. To do this in a raid setting, you will need to know when to use Feign Death in order erase the amount of aggro you have dealt to the creature before you gain more aggro than the raid's primary tank, and then resume the state of high DPS. You will also need a large mana pool and know how to effectively and efficiently use your abilities without running out of mana too quickly. Mana regen from items such as the Black Grasp of the Destroyer and abilities such as Aspect of the Viper can help you accomplish this fine balance of mana management and high DPS. In some cases you will be asked to Kite one or more creatures that either cannot or should not be killed during a specific encounter, allowing the rest of the raid to focus on other needs in order defeat the objective. Kiting is a skill that is best accomplished by Hunters because of their Aspect of the Cheetah, pets, and armor rating (Mages are quite skilled at snare/root kiting, but few instances require such a technique and is intense in its use of mana) and requires a lot of practice. While kiting, you will need to shoot your target with instant abilities, and often use speed boosts (such as the movement speed enchantment for foot gear, speed potions, and/or using Aspect of the Cheetah). Kiting, for most hunters, is the hardest skill to learn, yet is considered by many to be the most important skill. PvP Hunters wishing to participate in end-game PvP will find any of the talent trees help them towards their goals of massive player destruction! In Beast Mastery, a PvP-Hunter will find the skills of Intimidation, Bestial Wrath (to include The Beast Within), and a deadly pet worthy of causing constant havoc (especially to casters); a 'BM' Hunter would be considered ill-equipped in PvP without them. The Marksman tree skills of Improved Concussive Shot, Mortal Shots, Barrage, Improved Barrage, Concussive Barrage are all excellent in a PvP setting, with the skills of Lethal Shots, Scatter Shot and Silencing Shot being considered "must haves" within the tree. These talents in the tree enables the Hunter to inflict immense Burst damage. Finally, the Survival Hunter has many tricks that allow them to escape the deadzone (Note: The deadzone was done away with in Patch 2.3, much to the dismay of Mages using Frost Nova.) as well as dish out the pain, with such skill as Humanoid Slaying, Savage Strikes, Deterrence & Counterattack, and Master Tactician, followed by the "can't do without" skills of Hawk Eye, Improved Wing Clip, Entrapment, Survivalist, Killer Instinct, Wyvern Sting and Readiness topping the charts. Some of these skills are considered universal abilities that should be in any PvP-Hunter talent build, no matter which tree you put the majority of your points into. These include Hawk Eye, which allows you to do damage from farther away, as well as Entrapment, which used with Frost Trap, can turn the tide of an entire battle if used strategically, and Lethal Shots, which provides a sizable increase to your critical hit rate for only 5 points into Marksman. Hunters excel at taking out soft targets like Warlocks, Priests, and Mages from a distance, and should do so before moving on to hard targets such as Warriors and Paladins, though if a Rogue is observed it is the Hunter who is best equipped to track and expose the Rogue by marking the Rogue with Hunter's Mark. Hunter's pets can also break an unseen Rogue's stealth if the Rogue is close and the pet is on aggressive. You may also want to look at getting alot of stamina enchants so you will have more health to face a warrior or carry a flag in Warsong Gulch. See also * See Hunter Talent Discussion for information on common Hunter Talent Builds. * See Hunter weapons for a list of usable one and two handed melee hunter weapons to improve your ranged damage * Useful macros/Hunter * See Hunter races for discussion of hunters by race. A wide selection of good information can be read online at the official WoW forums. External links *Good Intentions pet abilities table *Petopia *TKA Something *Artanis Hunter Guide - Guide from http://www.piemasters.co.uk *WoW Hunter Pets *General Hunter Leveling Guide - Information on leveling a hunter, including a brief discussion on talents, pets, and hunter tips. *Hunter Burning Crusade PVP Clips - Beast Mastery Spec *Hunter Beast Mastery Talent Analysis *A forum for help and strategy, by Hunters for Hunters *Big Red Kitty - weekly hunter feature at WoW Insider *Hunter FTW! - Wiki for Hunters only - Instance Strategy, Gear, Guides, Talent Advice, Pet Gallery/Listing/Abilities, Theorycraft, Videos, Advanced Lessons (Kiting, Jumpshots, etc) *Easy-Read Guide for 25-Man Success it:Cacciatore Category:Classes Category:Hunters Category:Hunter Abilities Category:WoW Classes Category:RPG Classes